On Monday we got up late and wandered over to reception_ I should mention at this point that the accomodation is 2 room (bed + bathroom) bungalows. There, we caught up with Gil and Meital just as they were checking out. We had brekkie, sweet & sour chicken (pron chic-ken) and a fruit shake for me, and then Dafir and I checked out too. The four of us shared a taxi to Big Buddha Beach (Ban Bang Rak), so called because there's a huge Buddha in a small temple complex just to the East of where we are.
After being dropped off at the ferry pier, Gil and Dafir stayed with the bags while Meital and I set forth in search of rooms. Within five minutes we'd seen rooms and decided to stay at Phayom Park Resort, run by a Norwegian guy called Harry, who'd already spent five years in Thailand but only 9 months in Koh Samui. We were checked in by Rok and introduced to the resident barman and DJ, Gecko. "I can see the resemblance." was my first reaction. Dafi liked that.
That afternoon I went for a run and swim on the beach and met up with Dafir later on, still on the beach, on my return leg.
After dinner we stayed at Harry's bar with Gecko serving. We were there for a few hours and later joined by 5 German tourists who invited us for a beach party \with a bottle of whiskey and cola and ice to boot.
It was great for a while, Gecko joined us on the beach and brought his guitar for a singalong, (all in Thail - "Come on everybody, altogether now!" When the whiskey ran dry we headed back to the bar and Gecko got out the water based paints they use for signs. This was not a great idea , well okay, yes it was but we all ended up covered in blotchey paint.
I don't know what time Dafir came back but I got back to the bungalow first and and slept, in the morning when I woke up Daf was covered in paint and there was paint on the front door curtain which was more hanging off the rail than it was previously. I guess it was a good night.
got up lazily, had veg and rice at the small outside restaurant next door and had a brief Thai lesson from Khatoon, a local girl also eating there.
When Dafir eventually entered the land of the living we hired a couple of motorcycles and set out West. I still wanted to hire a bicycle to go round the island at a more leiusurely pace.
We stopped at a few places and took the road from Nathon down to the waterfalls in centre of the island. The scenery's really nice there and there's a small nook you can swim into behind the waterfall. We stayed and swam for aout half an hour and set off on the elephant trail back to were we'd parked the bikes, or so we thought. We must've taken the wrong route because the five minute walk lasted about thirty.
Back on the road again with the sun setting, we headed South East and stopped before the road turned North at Lamai beach, where we stopped for a short while. The beach there looks fantastic and the waterfront has a nice array of shorefront seafood restaurants.
With our next planned stop being further north at Chewang, we set off again. The main road at Chewang is lined with clothes shops, jewellery, CD's etc... Most people who'd been to Chewang suggested the Green Mango, so we took a look but it seemed a little quiet so we plumbed for Fawlty Towers, which was showing an episode of 'Only Fools and Horses'. The inside is decorated with a painting of Basil Fawlty, goosestepping with one finger under his nose and the other arm giving a sigue hail and a bubble next to him saying 'Don't mention the War.', and next to it is a painting of Manuel saying, ' I know nuthink.'